


make things slide into monday

by lotts (LottieAnna)



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Crushes, M/M, jozy just really likes tony and that's quite literally all there is to it, long distance flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 04:36:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19221715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts
Summary: Mathieu might have feelings for Tony. Like, fond feelings, and also—Y'know. Some other feelings, too.





	make things slide into monday

**Author's Note:**

> IF YOU FOUND THIS THROUGH GOOGLING, KNOW ANYONE MENTIONED IN THIS STORY PERSONALLY, OR ARE MENTIONED YOURSELF: please, please click away. This is a work of fiction and nothing written in this story is true. Any accurate information used in this story is publicly available information about public figures, the rest is made up, 100%.
> 
> title from crj, more or less unbeta'd, set at the end of the 17-18 szn. i started writing this a year ago, never finished, dug it up, and finished it, because these two need more fic. [this](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxij_UfFCAE/) insta post happened recently so good news they're still like this!
> 
> what u really need to understand is that mathieu joseph is... the best.

**** Listen, it’s not like Mathieu is pining, or whatever. 

It would be really, really weird if Mathieu was pining. He’s not a pining kind of guy, and, okay, everyone would say they’re not a pining kind of guy, but Mathieu’s less likely to pine than anyone he knows. Like, he sat through Phil and Jer’s bullshit all of WJC, on a team captained by  _ Dylan Strome,  _ okay, that was like, a masterclass in pining. 

And Mathieu’s not doing any of the things they’d done, right? He’s not avoiding anyone for no reason, or finishing off any otherwise pleasant conversations with sad, longing looks. He’s too easygoing to pine, really, so he spends most of his time getting sushi with his boys and trying to make people laugh. 

Okay, mostly getting sushi with one boy. And making one person laugh. 

…… 

In his defense, Tony’s laugh is super weird. 

It’s because he doesn’t laugh… well, ever, really, and when he does, it feels earned. Mathieu is used to being thought of as funny, and the mark of a true funny person is making even the least laugh-y people laugh. 

Like, Mikey McLeod? Could never make Anthony Cirelli laugh. Mathieu Joseph, on the other hand, has it down to a science. 

“I miss Tony,” he tells Mitch one night, when they’re both drunk after a win. They clinched a playoff spot a while ago, so it’s not like the exactly needed it, but still, a win is always something worth celebrating. 

Mitch rolls his eyes. “There’s a surprise.” 

“What?” 

“What? You bring it up a lot.” 

“Not really,” Mathieu says, furrowing his brow. “Not as much as I think it.” 

Mitch stares at him for a second, then shakes his head a little. “Oh, buddy.” 

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” Mathieu says. “I just miss Tony.” 

“Yes, and,” Mitch says, then does a gesture, like Mathieu’s supposed to complete that sentence. 

“This isn’t an improv class,” Mathieu says. 

Mitch rolls his eyes. “Okay, but you don’t  _ just  _ miss him.” 

“Alright, I miss him and I… think he’s cool?” Mathieu tries. 

“Not what I was looking for.” 

“Respect him?” 

“Nope.” 

“Admire him?” 

“Not quite.” 

“Enjoy his company?” 

Mitch shakes his head. 

“Then I don’t know what you’re going for, man,” Mathieu says. 

“Well,” Mitch says, “how do you feel when Tony laughs?” 

Mathieu thinks about it for a second, because Tony’s laugh is something worth thinking about. It makes him feel… accomplished, maybe. Like he did something good, by bringing Tony’s rare laugh into the world, and by making Tony happy. He knows that Tony probably feels weird about friendly guys—probably gets treated like everyone’s little brother, just because he’s shy—and, like, Tony’s not an unhappy person, but having everyone “ooh” and “aah” over your happiness would make anyone reluctant to smile in front of people. 

It feels kind of like acceptance, honestly. Like Tony’s comfortable enough around Mathieu to smile at his jokes, trusts that Mathieu just really loves his smile that much. 

And it’s also a little bit like—being understood, maybe? Like, Tony can tell that Mathieu’s easing up on the class clown stuff, and maybe recognizes that Mathieu’s not just like that because he’s an easygoing guy. Like, he is, but he’s got his defense mechanisms too, y’know? Humor is a pretty good way to make yourself likeable while keeping people at a distance until you trust them enough to be friends, and trust doesn’t come super easily to Mathieu, so he makes sure to be funny instead.  

Mathieu and Tony have some stuff in common, is what Mathieu’s trying to say. There’s a very specific kind of solidarity there. 

Which doesn’t really account for the way Mathieu’s insides light up and he feels warm all over when Tony laughs, but it accounts for, like, 20% of it. 

Whatever. Mathieu just— 

“I… like Tony?” he says.  “Is that what you were trying to get me to say?”

“Well—” Mitch says. ”I mean, yes, but with a different emphasis.” 

“What does that even mean?” Mathieu says. 

“Like, you like him, but do you  _ like  _ him,” Mitch says. “Like— _ like- _ like.” 

“What are you, twelve?” Mathieu says, not missing a beat, and he’s about to have another sip of his beer, but he pauses when the words sink in, freezing as the bottle is about to reach his lips. “Wait.” 

“Yes?” Mitch says, nodding. 

And Mathieu—he thinks about it, and of course his first instinct is  _ no,  _ but then his brain isn’t really letting him reject it out of hand, so he’s stuck thinking about it a little more. 

But like. There’s no way Mitchell Stephens is picking up on something Mathieu hasn’t picked up on, because Mitch just doesn’t get Mathieu and Tony the way they get each other. 

“No,” he says, shaking his head, and then he laughs a little. “No, you’re definitely off base with that one.” 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Mathieu says. “It’s not that kind of thing, dude.” 

“Alright,” Mitch says, his voice skeptical. “Whatever you say.” 

And they drop it, which is fine by Mathieu, because, like, there’s no way. It’s just— _ no. _

Absolutely not, it couldn’t be that— 

Yeah, just. No.  

…… 

Okay, on second thought: it’s maybe not “no.” 

It’s more… maybe.

When a friend suggests you might have feelings for another friend, that thought just—it sticks with you, y’know? It’s kind of like when you remove a price tag from something, and the sticker is gone, but there’s still a little bit of glue left behind, and stuff starts to stick to that glue, except in this case, instead of bits of dirt, it’s specks of feelings. 

Not, like, overwhelming feelings. Just normal, run-of-the-mill reactions you have to the things that person says, except they start to accrue. 

Like. You see them score a goal, and you feel the same way you always do about it, but it’s like— _ whoa.  _

You’re not really sure if your heart has always, like, soared when that happened, but like, it must have, right? Because you just really like your friend? And he’s score-in-his-debut talented and you’re so happy about his continued success and just, like, generally to play with him for the next few years? And you’ve known him for a while and it’s super cool to see your friend this happy and to watch the fanbase fall for him? 

That’s just what happens, when you feel the kind of not-easy-but-surprisingly-easy camaraderie that he feels with Tony. 

Probably. 

……

Okay, it’s maybe a stronger “maybe” than Mathieu had previously though. Like, it’s more like when you leave a sticker for too long on something, and then the material around it changes, and when you finally peel the sticker off, the stuff underneath is… strange. 

The thing that ends up peeling off the sticker is Mathieu being suddenly unable to text Tony like a normal fucking person. 

Mathieu is a text-first guy, alright? Especially with Tony, because Tony is kind of quiet, and also busy, so Mathieu isn’t a wimp about double texting. 

And that’s fine, except then Tony texts him, and it becomes a whole  _ thing.  _

Like, there are butterflies. In his stomach. Over a text that just says,  _ hey, how’s cuse?  _ and like, normally Mathieu would just smile and respond, with something reasonable—like an answer to the fucking question he asked, so,  _ the team’s great, the weather sucks _ —but now he’s second guessing that, for some reason. 

He sends it, in the end. It’s a fucking text to his friend, he has no reason to be overthinking it. 

Tony responds with a sad face emoji and a sun emoji, and then a picture of a pool, presumably one that he’s sitting by right now, on one of those lounge chairs, and Mathieu can see that he’s wearing a pair of god-awful flip flops. 

He does not zoom in on Tony’s calves. That would be  _ weird.  _ He zooms in to see if the pink floaty toy in the pool is a flamingo or not, and if Tony’s calves happen to be in the frame, so be it. 

_ no sun to be found here :(((,  _ he sends back, then snaps him a selfie with a crying emoji instead of his face, because the lighting in the room is weird, and he’s suddenly very concerned about the quality of the selfies he sends. 

_ rip,  _ Tony sends, and then,  _ how r the guys?  _

_ good!!!!  _ Mathieu sends back, and then, after a second of hesitation, he adds,  _ we miss you.  _

_ i miss you too,  _ Tony sends, and Mathieu, like. Stares at it. 

For a solid minute. 

He knows the “you” is collective, in response to his “we,” but still. His heart is doing some pretty unfair sticker peeling, right now. 

_ haha,  _ Tony adds, like he’s nervous about it, and then it’s like—bam, bandaid fuckin’ ripped on Mathieu’s heart. 

So, yeah. There are some feelings. 

_ tell me bout the show!!!!!!!  _ he sends, and he hates how his palms are sweating. 

Watching Tony type and delete messages repeatedly is not really helping that situation, either. 

_ idk,  _ Tony sends at last. 

Mathieu doesn’t know why that required multiple drafts, but apparently, he’s not done. 

_ most of the guys are older,  _ he adds, and then,  _ its just kinda weird?  _ and,  _ everyone is nice but they all know each other already idk.  _

Finally, he finishes with,  _ sorry haha.  _

_ lol no need to apologize dude!!!,  _ Mathieu sends back quickly, just so Tony doesn’t feel weird about opening up. He can put aside his brand-new realizations and be a good friend.  _ that makes sense tho.  _

_ yeah idk i kinda wish u were up tbh,  _ Tony sends, and then he’s typing another message, but whatever it was gonna be, he decides against it. 

_ u and me both <3,  _ Mathieu sends, and then,  _ wanna ft?  _

_ can’t rn with some of the guys :(,  _ Tony sends. 

_ noooo,  _ Mathieu sends. 

_ l8r tho?  _

_ ouiiii for sure:),  _ Mathieu says, and he tries to not think of the plan as too much of anything. 

…… 

So they like. Watch a movie together over FaceTime. 

Which feels a little bit like something. 

“If there are tears, don’t tell Chubs,” Mathieu says, getting ready to hit play on  _ Up. _

Tony snorts. “If your eyes are dry after the first ten minutes of this movie, you’re not human.” 

“You plan on crying?” 

“Buckets,” Tony deadpans, and Mathieu chuckles a little, and Tony looks pleased at that. 

“Alright, then let’s fucking go,” Mathieu says. “Wanna do the honors?” 

“The honors?” 

“The big countdown to play,” Mathieu says. “The three-two-one-go.”

“Alright,” Tony says, doing this almost-smile that Mathieu is super on-board with. “Three… two… one… play.” 

And like, they both cry. Obviously. It’s  _ Up.  _

It’s a mixed bag for Mathieu, honestly, because, on the one hand, he’s got this urge to tuck his face into Tony’s shirt and to reach out and wipe the tears from his face, so it’s probably a good thing that he’s not here, but, at the same time, he still really wishes he was. 

…… 

So, Mathieu has… a crush. 

It’s. Okay. 

Like, he can deal with a crush, at least. A crush on a friend isn’t ideal, but it’s not, like, unmanageable. It’s not pining, either, just—a crush. Standard stuff. 

The issue with having a crush on someone in the NHL, though, is that there is so much goddamn content about them, and it’s very enabling, and Mathieu feels weird about watching all of it, but it’s right there, Tony’s face in the thumbnail, and he’s not gonna  _ not  _ click on it.

Okay, listen, Mathieu isn’t holding any illusions here. It’s not like Tony is some kind of dreamboat. He’s an athlete, sure, and he has his angles, but for the most part, he looks uncomfortable in pictures, like he forgets what to do with his face as soon as someone puts a camera in front of him. He’s not unattractive, but it’s like he’s… secretly attractive, maybe. Attractive once you’re already into him. 

Or something. 

It’s confusing, but the point is, Mathieu has very positive associations with his face. So he watches a lot of videos, and the movies-over-FaceTime thing becomes a  _ thing,  _ and so more positive associations develop, and it’s a positive feedback loop that’s very slightly ruining Mathieu’s life. 

At one point, it lands him deep in Tony’s tagged pictures in Instagram, and he finds a video of him from over the summer, an arm slung over Raddy’s shoulders as the camera zooms in on them and “My Heart Will Go On” plays in the background. 

He watches it… so many times. He’s not really sure of the number of replays, but he lets it loop for two whole minutes, feeling weird and jealous and all sorts of other things he does not want to be feeling. 

…… 

In the end, what happens is: Mathieu’s playoffs end, and he’s told to go down to Tampa, so he does, and, like. Tony’s in Tampa. 

So they see each other. Face to face. 

They hug for a long minute, because that’s what friends do, and then they go get dinner, because— 

Mathieu’s not sure why he keeps trying to justify all this. It’s dinner time, and they both like sushi, and— they get dinner. 

It’s all very normal, stuff they’ve done a billion times before, right up until the point where Mathieu kisses Tony. 

Which is. A first. 

It’s a quick kiss—more of a heads up than anything else—and he pulls away before he has a chance to see if Tony’s gonna kiss back. He’s not even sure why he did it in the first place. That should’ve been… more difficult, he thinks. Kissing friends is weird, and this crush has been kinda stressful. 

But, at the same time— Tony feels a lot more real now, and Mathieu likes him just as much, so it almost makes sense. 

In any event, it happens. 

“What was that for?” Tony asks, his face not betraying a single ounce of emotion. With anyone else, it would be stressful, but on Tony, the expression is familiar, kind of comforting. 

“Because I’m into you,” Mathieu says, scratching the back of his neck. He figures he might as well go for broke. “That cool?” 

“Uh, sure,” Tony says. “I mean—what?” 

Mathieu shrugs. “I dunno, man.” 

“You’re being weird.” 

“Am I really?” 

“Kinda,” Tony says. “You just kissed me.” 

“So you’re saying it was a weird kiss?” 

“No, I’m saying that you kissing me is weird. The kiss itself was fine.” 

“Good-fine, or fine-fine?” 

“Does it matter?” 

“I mean, I have feelings for you, so,” Mathieu says. “Kinda, yeah.” 

“You—” Tony blinks. 

Mathieu waits patiently. He’s a little worried, but, like, the normal kind of worried. The stakes are kinda high, sure, but also— when Tony really doesn’t like something, Mathieu can usually tell, and when Tony does like something, he expresses it very subtly, if he expresses it at all. That’s just sort of how he is as a person, and Mathieu really likes who Tony is as a person, so. 

“We can kiss again, if you want,” Mathieu says, because he might be patient, but he also. Y’know. Wants to kiss him. “If that’ll help you decide.” 

“Uh,” Tony says. “So, wait— we’re just gonna do this, then?” 

Mathieu bobs his head, like,  _ more or less.  _ “I mean, you tell me. Again, I really like you, so I’m down with whatever.” 

That’s not true. Mathieu would be quite sad if Tony didn’t dig him back, but that seems like something Tony already knows, and that he doesn’t need to say. 

“Alright, then,” Tony says, and then he thinks for another second, then nods. “Let’s give it a shot, I guess.”

“You guess?” Mathieu says. He’s not sure if it comes out teasing or just strange; there’s a weird sound in his head—kind of like an angelic chorus, but less obviously dramatic—that’s making it hard to hear his own voice. 

“I don’t know, man,” Tony says, wrinkling his nose. “Feelings are weird.” 

Tony is blushing pretty hard right now. If Mathieu had to guess, he’d say they’re on the same page. 

“Yep,” Mathieu says cheerfully. “Let’s kiss about it some more.” 

Tony shrugs, agreeable, and leans in.  

…… 

They do eventually have to sort of acknowledge how big of a deal it is, but Mathieu mostly feels like he wants to throw up the whole time, and Tony doesn’t look much better. They’re both more or less allergic to drama; Tony is obviously a pretty lowkey guy, and Mathieu prefers to maintain a fairly steady level of happiness. He’s found that drama tends to get in the way of that. So, y’know, big deal conversations are not something either of them is at all comfortable with.

But it’s fine. They get through it, mostly because if they don’t, they’ll probably end up fighting about it, which is the last thing either of them wants. 

Honestly, it’s probably a mature move. That makes sense. Tony tends to bring out the best in Mathieu. 

The good news is, once they get through the worst of it, Mathieu can’t stop smiling, which would be embarrassing, except for the fact that Mathieu has always been a pretty smiley guy, especially around Tony. 

So really, to anyone who’s not Mathieu, it probably looks like nothing’s changed. 

**Author's Note:**

> [the very real video of tony and t raddy set to "my heart will go on"](https://rycallahan.tumblr.com/post/164596518868/this-gym-bromance-is-for-real-acirelli22)
> 
> [this important video about mathieu joseph on team canada that i just felt like sharing](https://www.tsn.ca/hockey-canada/video/joseph-s-pre-game-handshake-rituals-keeps-things-light-for-team-canada~1690897)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] make things slide into monday](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19237174) by [binchmarner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/binchmarner/pseuds/binchmarner)




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